Lovettsville Historical Society and Museum

11/07/2023

Next lecture: Sunday, Nov. 12 "“The Botanical History of Northern Loudoun County” http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/november-2023-lecture-series/

10/06/2023

http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/fashioning-the-funeral/

"Fashioning the Funeral:
Mourning Wear and Customs
in Civil War America"

On Sunday, October 8, Kelly Wenner White will present an overview of Civil War-era mourning wear and customs, including topics ranging from mourning jewelry and advances in medicine to gravestones and fashion.

12/05/2022

Our December 2022 Newsletter is now available, with a feature on the life and letters of Dr. James Henshaw https://us8.campaign-archive.com/?u=505152bd0e6e82e1cbc019d3c&id=d8bf33d75c

It started with a plane crash. The tragic, mysterious crash of a commercial airliner in the summer of 1940 left a scene of devastation in rural Virginia -- and a series of unanswered questions. The cause of the crash was unclear. Among the dozens of people killed was a sitting U.S. senator. His pres...

12/05/2022

11/14/2022

Sunday, Dec. 4, at 4:00 p.m.

11/04/2022

Next lecture: Sunday, Nov. 13 -- Frederick's Repudiation Day
http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/lhs-lecture-series-repudiation-day-frederick-countys-1765-protest-against-the-stamp-act/

In 1765, eight years before the Boston Tea Party, twelvejudges in Frederick County, Maryland repudiated the British Stamp Act.  Their action, taken on November 23, 1765, was the first Stamp Act protest in the American colonies, but it is little-known outside of western Maryland. 

10/02/2022

Our October 2022 Newsletter is ready ... https://us8.campaign-archive.com/?u=505152bd0e6e82e1cbc019d3c&id=9b3a10f915

Sun., Oct. 2, at 2:00 p.m. -- Thomas Balch Library Debuts the Elaine E. Thompson [email protected] online

10/02/2022

Next Lecture -- Sunday, Oct. 9 http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/lhs-lecture-series-robert-harper-and-the-quakers-of-hopewell-meeting-an-unlikely-story-of-the-founding-of-harpers-ferry/

When Robert Harper, a native of southeastern Pennsylvania, was approached by a group of Quakers to build a gristmill on Opequon Creek in the Shenandoah Valley, little did he know that he would become founder of a thriving settlement at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. Through goo...

09/07/2022

Next lecture - Sunday, Sept. 11
http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/lhs-lecture-series-armies-of-foreign-mercenaries-dispelling-the-hessian-myth/

On Sunday, September 11, the Lovettsville Historical Society will host Hessian descendant Ross H. Schwalm, who will take us on a journey from the French and Indian War. through the American Revolution, to the dozen or so former prisoners of war who settled in Lovettsville and became produc...

09/07/2022

Our September 2022 Newsletter is now available: https://us8.campaign-archive.com/?u=505152bd0e6e82e1cbc019d3c&id=623587344b

LECTURES, SEMINARS, TOURS & OTHER EVENTS (mostly free) Every Saturday through October, at 11 a.m. & 1 p.m. – Guided Tours of the Battle of Middleburg Battlefield at Mt. Defiance. Thurs., Sept. 8, at 7:00 p.m. -- Virtual DNA Special Interest Group. https://zoom.us/j/96791977878?pwd=RE96bWI2OTB0eXU...

07/04/2022

Our July newsletter is now available at https://mailchi.mp/bcecf5fceaae/news-from-the-lovettsville-historical-society

LEESBURG, VIRGINIA June 21, 2022 – The Loudoun Preservation Society reminds the public that applications are currently being accepted for its 2022 Grant Awards. Project applications will be received this year through July 15th.

03/12/2022

LHS Lectures are back! March 13 and April 3. https://us8.campaign-archive.com/?u=505152bd0e6e82e1cbc019d3c&id=1f38294715

03/12/2022

The Museum is closed today, March 12, due to inclement weather. We'll be back next week. The lecture on Sunday, March 13, will go ahead as planned, virtual and in-person. Go to our website for more information.

03/10/2022

Our March 2022 newsletter, the "Doctors Issue," is now available. It also contains the announcement or our revived monthly Lecture Series, which we were forced to shut down two years ago. We will resume the lecture series on Sunday, March 13. Go to http://www.LovettsvilleHistoricalSociety.org/

Our March newsletter, featuring stories about Lovettsville’s doctors of the 19th and 20th centuries, is now available here.

02/28/2022

LHS Lecture Series to Resume on Sunday, March 13, with “The Loudouners who Challenged Thomas Jefferson” by Nancy Spannaus.
http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/lhs-lecture-series-to-resume-with-the-loudouners-who-challenged-thomas-jefferson/

After almost two years of suspension of our Monthly Lecture Series due to Covid-19, the Lovettsvile Historical Society is pleased to announce that we are resuming the Lecture Series, picking up where we left off in the Spring of 2020.

02/04/2022

Our February 2022 Newsletter is ready. Lots of interesting news and stories. Get it here: http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/our-february-2022-newsletter-is-ready-for-you-to-read/

12/02/2021

Our December Newsletter is now available -- featuring stories on Christmas at Mount Sinai Church in Little Britain in 1886, and the restoration of the Luther Potterfield Stable, or "The Block that was Too Big for Itself." Read it here: http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/

Our November 2021 Newsletter is now available! November 15, 2021 LHS_Admin 0 The LHS Newsletter for November 2021 is now out. Click here to read it.

11/15/2021

Board of Supervisors Votes to Study Preservation of Mount Sinai Cemetery.

Update -- At its Nov. 3 business meeting, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors adopted the Mount Sinai initiative by unanimous consent. The item was one of more than half a dozen items that had been agreed to in advance for approval by consent. Most of the discussion on the motion to approve the consent agenda was on Mount Sinai.

First, Supervisor Kershner (Catoctin District) thanked the Board for supporting the initiative for the purchase of Mt. Sinai Cemetery. He said that this is an important part of our history, and we should ensure the historical sites are preserved. He noted that this was an African-American cemetery for enslaved persons and after slavery was eradicated in this nation, others were buried there. I think it's really important for us as a county to begin to look at some of these sites, Kershner said, and we have done this for other places in the county.

Chair Randall said she had met virtually by phone with a large group on his last month. Quite a few options wee discussed as far as how to save this cemetery. She said she had talked about the County's commitment to preservation, of all types of histories. She thanked her staff who worked on this, and everybody on the phone call; there were a number of organizations represented. "I told them you have my commitment on this, and I meant it," Randall said. So this is the first step. This could be a long process, but it's important that we at least start the process.

The motion to adopt the consent agenda passed 9-0.

11/15/2021

Our November 2021 Newsletter is now available. https://us8.campaign-archive.com/?u=505152bd0e6e82e1cbc019d3c&id=db5e10b371

or go to: http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/

Our November 2021 Newsletter is now available! November 15, 2021 LHS_Admin 0 The LHS Newsletter for November 2021 is now out. Click here to read it.

10/31/2021

On November 3, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors will consider an initiative to protect and preserve the Mount Sinai Cemetery, an abandoned African-American burial ground near Lovettsville. The initiative is being presented jointly by Phyllis Randall, the Chair of the Board of Supervisors, and Caleb Kershner, the Catoctin District Supervisor. To read more, go to the following link:
http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/county-supervisors-to-take-up-preservation-of-mount-sinai-cemetery/

08/05/2021

Our August 2021 Newsletter is now available, featuring the American Revolution -- with coverage of the July 24 Patriot grave-marking and materials from our 2011 lecture on the German Settlement in the Revolutionary War. http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/our-august-2021-newletter-is-now-available/

07/03/2021

Our July newsletter is now available!
http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/our-july-2021-newsletter-is-here/

Our July 2021 newsletter is here! July 3, 2021 LHS_Admin Uncategorized 0 Our monthly newsletter for July 2021 has just been published. It features reports on the Museum reopening on August 3, and plans to resume our monthly lecture series, as well as the annual Lovettsville Elementary School history...

06/28/2021

Public Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Lovettsville
July 3, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. at the Walker Pavilion

Do you and your family want to celebrate Independence Day in true patriotic fashion? Then come to Lovettsville to participate in a Public Reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 3. History educators, community leaders, and members of the public will join their voices to read the Declaration aloud on Saturday, July 3rd, at 10 a.m. at the Walker Pavilion on the Town Green in Lovettsville, Virginia.
Following the reading, we will hold a symbolic signing of the Declaration.
The event is free, and open to the public. All are welcome. The reading is sponsored by the History Educators Network and the Lovettsville Historical Society.
The first modern-day Public Reading in Lovettsville was held on July 4, 2019, at St. James United Church of Christ. Due to the pandemic, we were unable to hold the Public Reading last year. This year, we resume the tradition, but at a different venue -- the Walker Pavilion.
For more information, please contact Eirik Harteis at [email protected].
-----------
Photo: some of the readers in the 2019 Public Reading. From left to right: Edward Spannaus, Tracy Gillespie, Tanja Woldt, Katherine Corrado, Nancy Spannaus, Effie Hall, Rich Gillespie, and Eirik Harteis.

06/25/2021

The Family & Friends of Mount Sinai Cemetery, a project of the Lovettsville Historical Society, was at the Leesburg Juneteenth celebration on June 19 at Ida Lee Park. Pictured are Claudette Bard, Ed Bard, and Ed Spannaus. We were spreading the word about our campaign to restore the Mount Sinai Cemetery, and looking for more family and descendants of those buried there. One of those buried at Mount Sinai, Pvt. Samuel Timbers of the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry, has a direct connection to Juneteenth. His regiment was in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, and, by some accounts, saw that enslaved persons had not been emancipated yet, and urged Gen. Gordon Granger to issue his General Order No. 3, enforcing Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in Texas. For more on Private Timbers and why his regiment was in Texas see “Remembering Private Samuel Benjamin Timbers” on the Lovettsville Historical Society website. (photo: Irvin Greene)

06/05/2021

Our June 2021 Newsletter is now, with stories about the Taylorstown Mill, the Short Hill's largest known cave, and how we have discovered more Revolutionary War Patriots in Lovettsville. Plus an obituary for Dr. Herbert Trexler, a mainstay of Lovettsville's Oktoberfest, and a feature story on the Rev. Emory Timbers, one of those who was nurtured by the Mount Sinai church and cemetery at Little Britain. http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/our-june-newsletter-is-out/

05/05/2021

Our May 2021 Newsletter is now available. Includes the story of taverns in old Lovettsville, and updates on the campaign to restore the Mount Sinai Cemetery at Little Britain. And our always-popular calendar of nearby -- mostly virtual -- events of interest. http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/our-may-2021-newsletter-is-now-available/

Our May 2021 Newsletter is now available May 5, 2021 LHS_Admin Uncategorized 0 Our May Newsletter is now available. View it here.  

05/05/2021

Loudoun County Heritage Commission Endorses Appointment of Trustees for Mount Sinai Cemetery

http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/loudoun-county-heritage-commission-endorses-request-for-appointment-of-mount-sinai-cemetery-trustees/

04/15/2021

Family & Friends Clear and Clean Mount Sinai Cemetery -- April 10

04/14/2021

LHS Works to Restore Mount Sinai Cemetery -- Loudoun Now

https://loudounnow.com/2021/04/08/lovettsville-historical-society-works-to-restore-mt-sinai-cemetery/?utm_source=Loudoun+Now+Newsroom&utm_campaign=89a9601791-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_04_08_07_42&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1ec2f141cc-89a9601791-123942089

Another of the county’s abandoned cemeteries is being revived as a visible and accessible part of the county’s African-American history.

04/03/2021

April 2021 newsletter has just been launched! Our latest newsletter issue, for April 2021, is now available. One of the history features is about the Hawker log store, and how it made its way from Sunnyside, a community in southeast Frederick County MD, to Lovettsville. And we continue the story of the Mount Sinai Church and Cemetery at Little Britain, along with a news update about the Family and Friends of Mount Sinai Cemetery, which is asking the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors for assistance in carrying out the restoration of this abandoned and neglected graveyard. Get the newsletter here https://us8.campaign-archive.com/?u=505152bd0e6e82e1cbc019d3c&id=5b52435037 or from our website http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/our-april-2021-newsletter-is-now-available/

Our April 2021 Newsletter is Now Available! April 3, 2021 LHS_Admin Uncategorized 0 Our latest newsletter issue, for April 2021, is now available. One of the history features is about the Hawker log store, and how it made its way from Sunnyside, a community in southeast Frederick County MD, to Lovet...

03/05/2021

Our March newsletter is now available. It features articles on Robert Booth, an early Dutchman's Creek Pioneer, and on Mount Sinai Cemetery -- both announcing that family and friends of Mount Sinai are planning a cemetery clean-up, as well as more of our ongoing research on those interred at this historic but neglected cemetery And as always, a compilation of nearby (mostly virtual) events of historical interest. http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/our-march-2021-newsletter-is-now-available/

Our March 2021 Newsletter is now available! March 5, 2021 LHS_Admin Uncategorized 0 Our latest newsletter, for March 2021, is now available. It features articles on Robert Booth, an early Dutchman’s Creek Pioneer, and on Mount Sinai Cemetery — both announcing that family and friends of Mount Sin...

02/07/2021

Our February 2021 Newsletter is now available, chock full of features. Get it here. http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/index.php/our-february-2021-newsletter-is-now-available/

01/11/2021

Our January 2021 Newsletter is now available -- with news and updates about the Lovettsville Historical Society, history features on the Ruse/Reed farmstead on the Lovettsville Community Park property, more history of the Ruse family (whose history shows many features common to our early German settlers), and a follow-up on those interred at Mount Sinai Cemetery at Britain, near Lovettsville. And don't miss our popular "Nearby Events" column, which keeps you apprised of nearby history events, mostly virtual, which you can see and participate in online. https://mailchi.mp/8a50b088e47d/news-from-the-lovettsville-historical-society

A New Year's Letter to our Friends and Supporters   While we look forward to a better year in 2021, we’d like to bring you all up-to-date on where things stand with the LHS, as we close out this year of disruption and closings. Activities. Like all other similar organizations, we had to shut down...

12/13/2020

Don't miss our December Newsletter. Lots of interesting history of the Lovettsville area. More stories of those interred at Mount Sinai Cemetery at Little Britain on Mountain Road opens this issue. Then, taking off from an article borrowed from the Waterford Foundation newsletter, about politics getting a bit out of hand in Waterford, and a fracas with visitors from Lovettsville, we took a look at one of those involved -- Charles Johnson. Investigating his life produced a story "The Spy Who Walked a Crooked Line," about one of the more colorful characters in our local history. Sam Kroiz then brings us up to date on the Johnsons, the Georges, and other related families. https://mailchi.mp/2c70f7908a60/news-from-the-lovettsville-historical-society

11/03/2020

Our November newsletter is now out! The feature is a remembrance of Civil War soldier PVT Samuel Timbers (29th U.S.C.I.) by his great-grandson Howard Gilbert Timbers. Also we highlight the mystery of the suddenly re-appearing grave markers at the Old Berlin Cemetery in Brunswick. And we publish the text of Mike Zapf's tribute to former Mayor Elaine Walker, delivered at her memorial service on behalf of the Lovettsville Historical Society. https://mailchi.mp/73af88e691a3/news-from-the-lovettsville-historical-society

10/03/2020

Our October 2020 Newsletter is now available and is ready for your reading enjoyment. This issue features an article on the World War II Gold Star Service Flag at New Jerusalem Lutheran Church; a new feature on "Hidden History: the Mount Sinai church and cemetery at "Little Britain;" and a follow-up to the "Right to Vote" feature on the 1890s voter register, that was in our last issue. https://mailchi.mp/88e99ff60408/news-from-the-lovettsville-historical-society

09/05/2020

Our September 2020 Newsletter is ready, just in time for Labor Day Weekend. This issue features the 120-year-old register of Black voters in Lovettsville found in the Lovettsville Museum, and stories about those listed in the register from a descendant. https://mailchi.mp/fec6e49c70be/news-from-the-lovettsville-historical-society

Lovettsville Museum is open, by appointment The Lovettsville Museum is now open  to those making an advance appointment.  After reviewing the Governor’s “Safer at Home: Phase Three” requirements and guidelines, we do not believe that we have adequate staffing or facilities to be able to ...

08/01/2020

Our August 2020 Newsletter has launched! This issue features an introduction to the Loudoun Farm Heritage Museum, highlighting the part that Lovettsville farming has played in the story the Farm Museum tells. http://www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org/?p=3924&preview=true

Our August 2020 Newsletter has launched! August 1, 2020 LHS_Admin Uncategorized 0 Our August Newsletter is now available, featuring an introduction to the Loudoun Farm Heritage Museum and the role that Lovettsville-area farming plays in the story it tells. Get the Newsletter here.  

07/15/2020

Can you identify this Lovettsville-area store, believed to be in the mid-1930s? If you think you know who -- or where -- this is, submit your answer to [email protected], with the caption "History Mystery."